Google addresses a privacy flaw in Chrome 136 that has existed for 20 years
Users should exercise common sense when browsing the internet to make sure it is as safe as possible, but occasionally the large tech companies that supply us with our browsing tools—in this case, browsers like Chrome—have more influence than the users themselves.
A privacy flaw that had been used for years by some websites to determine users' browsing history by looking at links they have already visited has been fixed by Google.
The issue here is that, even if a user has clicked on a link before, websites are permitted to mark it as "visited," which changes the color of the link from the default blue.
No matter which website the user was on when they clicked on the link, the system, of course, shows this color change, enabling other websites to use scripts that expose the user's browsing history.
Numerous security threats that enable user tracking across websites and the internet may result from this.
In the past, researchers have been able to illustrate a variety of attacks linked to this invasion of privacy.
Thankfully, a three-key split for these visited links will be implemented in Google Chrome version 136, the upcoming update that will fix this 20-year-old problem.
The browser will therefore use three keys to segment link visits rather than storing them globally: the link URL, the top-level site, and the frame origin.
In essence, this will make the link look as though the user clicked on it earlier and it was viewed in the same source frame.
Google has made an exception for special links, though, so even if a user clicks on a link from one website while on another, it will still be recorded as "visited" on that site.